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Do high school students really benefit from all of these AP courses? I find my son's AP world history class doing a lot of studying for the exam and not a lot of learning material. The teachers all seem stressed about the pass rate and all of the private schools in our area seem to want to "one-up" each other by offering the most AP classes in town.
What do college admissions people think about this trend? Will it ever go away or get under control?
Do high school students really benefit from all of these AP courses? I find my son's AP world history class doing a lot of studying for the exam and not a lot of learning material. The teachers all seem stressed about the pass rate and all of the private schools in our area seem to want to "one-up" each other by offering the most AP classes in town.
What do college admissions people think about this trend? Will it ever go away or get under control?
There you go, it's the new status symbol.
Admissions people are mixed in their opinions, with so many new students taking AP there was the perception that the courses were being dumbed down so now the CollegeBoard authorizes courses in a school based on instructor submissions-no authorization means no AP course title or credit. The CollegeBoard is partly at fault for starting to encourage schools to admit "non-traditional" students from under represented groups. I receive a statistical rating for the school reflecting that in July which I have to report to my school system which then has to report to the state school board (my under represented group is white males). What has happened is that more kids take the classes, more kids take the tests (at $80+ a pop) but the number scoring 3, 4, or 5 (standard to receive a class exemption or college credit) has remained static.
Do high school students really benefit from all of these AP courses? I find my son's AP world history class doing a lot of studying for the exam and not a lot of learning material.
Just out of curiosity, how is studying for the exam NOT learning material? The exam covers a ton of material and the whole point of the class is to do well on the exam.
Just out of curiosity, how is studying for the exam NOT learning material? The exam covers a ton of material and the whole point of the class is to do well on the exam.
He is learning the material that is said to be on the exam, but his teacher has little leeway to move beyond that material or explore anything in depth even if it captures her class's interest. Every AP World History student in America will learn the exact same material - it just seems that over time, this is a recipe for a pretty narrow fund of knowledge entering college.
The World History curriculum is the worst one, most of the teachers I've talked to believe it should be a two year course-that's with having the class daily for 90 minutes a day.
Last edited by North Beach Person; 02-24-2009 at 05:43 AM..
Reason: spelling
He is learning the material that is said to be on the exam, but his teacher has little leeway to move beyond that material or explore anything in depth even if it captures her class's interest. Every AP World History student in America will learn the exact same material - it just seems that over time, this is a recipe for a pretty narrow fund of knowledge entering college.
Seems to work pretty well for the rest of the world.
I never took AP World History but I took AP US and Euro, as well as AP macroeconomics, US government, English language, Spanish language, and Spanish literature and trust me when I say there isn't TIME to cover beyond what's on the tests- they are incredibly broad. If your son is so interested, you obviously have the internet and I'm assuming a public library to research things further. It's what I did when we did not spend as much time on certain topics as I would have liked.
AP World History is the most broad of the AP histories. There is just no way in a one year class to cover ALL of world history. That's insane. Just like in AP Spanish lit, we had to cover the reading list. No more, no less.
My pet peeve with the AP classes is the variation among students in how much classroom time they get to learn the same material. The tests are given on a couple of days in May. Some schools, however, start in mid August and some don't start until after labor day. That's at least two weeks more classroom time. My son (sophomore) is taking AP US History this year, 40 minutes a day, 5 days a week. His cousin, same state, is doing it for a full year but on a block schedule, which means he has it for 80 or 90 minutes a day - twice as much time.
From what I remember with my kids is that April is when the teachers try to cram in everything that they were not able to do throughout the rest of the school year. I agree that they are now over-emphasized.
High School AP classes represent what that class in college would be like. I took Chemistry AP, English AP and a few others and I'm glad I did because my first year of college was a breeze. And I didn't get an A in any of those AP courses either, I took them so I could gain more information before I headed to college. Remember, it's easier to learn something the second time around. Grades are one thing, but the wealth of information given to you is definitely more important. Anyone can study for an exam and regurgitate the information and pass. It's what you remember that counts. Take those same students 6 months from when they took the intitial exam and see how they do, without studying! Because guess what, in college, heck even graduate school (dental school), you may get tested on information that was taught 6 or 9 months ago and when you get that question wrong, don't even think about going up to the instructor or professor and saying, "well gee, I didn't know that was going to be on the exam" because I guarantee to you he/she will tell you to get lost. If you have time to take the AP course, take it, retain as much information as you can because most likely you'll see that information again.
Do high school students really benefit from all of these AP courses?
I certainly did. My scores were high enough that I received two semesters worth of biology credits for science majors (AP Biology), and 2 semesters of Freshmen English credits (AP Literature and AP language) before even stepping foot on my university campus. Doing well on those tests are a good indication to admissions that the student can handle college-level material.
High School AP classes represent what that class in college would be like.
I can only speak for physics classes, but when I was a teaching assistant for freshman physics at a major research university, a gross majority of our students had taken AP physics. Many had gotten 4s or 5s, and were shocked that physics isn't actually about memorizing which equation to use. My objection to the AP physics curriculum is just that--you can do quite well on the test by simply memorizing procedures. The creative thinking necessary to become a good scientist is stifled.
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